The woman who presided over Northerns Cricket with a velvet glove for 12 years and helped to develop it into a stronghold of domestic cricket while also being co-responsible for the successful amalgamation with Eastern Cricket Union to form the Titans-franchise in 2004, Elise Lombard, was honoured in a special way on 16th August. The Media Centre at SuperSport Park was named after the former chief executive of the Titans and the Northerns Cricket Union. Many feats have been synonymous with Lombard. One of those was the development of the iconic stadium SuperSport Park in Centurion into a Test venue.

During her first half-dozen years at the helm of the newly formed franchise, the Titans also won more trophies than any other domestic franchise. She was involved with the organising of the Champions League T20 for which the Titans qualified in 2012 when this beloved mother of three and chief executive of the Titans passed away. At the time of her death, Jacques Faul, then acting chief executive officer of Cricket South Africa (CSA), saluted her contribution and said she turned the Easterns-Titans franchise into one of the powerhouses in the country and also contributed enormously to the financial well-being of the game. Vincent Sinovich, former president of the Northerns Cricket Union, described her as an extremely competent and dedicated person who delivered beyond the call of duty. “Elise autographed her work with excellence,” he noted.“I first met her 32 years ago, when I interviewed her for the position of part-time bookkeeper for Northern Transvaal Cricket Union,” Sinovich remarked in 2012 when he delivered a eulogy to honour her.“Even at this early stage of her career with Northerns, Elise showed phenomenal commitment, and displayed the class of potential that would eventually take her to the top of the ladder,” he said. Before her appointment as chief executive officer of the union in 2000, she held the positions of secretary, accountant and executive director of the Northerns Cricket Union.“In Elise’s 30+ years of service at NCU, she attended over 500 board meetings, and she was always courteous, never lost her temper nor became aggressive. Elise carried herself impeccably,” he said. Faul, currently the chief executive of the Titans, said one of the legacies of Lombard was the many Titans players who represented South Africa during her association with Northerns and the Titans, which is a tribute to her leadership skills and to her firm grasp of what it required to become a trend-setting union and franchise.“The naming of this suite after Elise is a gesture of gratitude to this grand lady of Northerns and Titans cricket for her superb people skills that inspired players, coaching staff and administrators, but also to her long-serving, unwavering commitment to the game she loved,” he added.